Historical Stories of Three Common Coffee Bean Varieties and Introduction to Arabica Coffee Bean Flavor Characteristics

If you are a passionate coffee enthusiast, you probably want to know how many types of coffee exist worldwide and what makes each one unique. Today FrontStreet Coffee will guide you through a detailed classification of world coffees. In this article, you will gain deep insights into their different varieties, and through our introduction, you will discover the coffee beans that best suit your current taste preferences.

Global Coffee Varieties

There are three main types of coffee beans used for commercial cultivation worldwide: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica.

Before explaining these three types, we need to briefly discuss the classification of coffee plants.

What Plant Are Coffee Beans?

Here is the breakdown of coffee classification according to the United States Department of Agriculture:

Domain: Eukaryota – organisms with cells whose nucleus is enclosed within a membrane.

Kingdom: Plantae – plants.

Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – vascular plants.

Superdivision: Spermatophyta – seed plants.

Division: Magnoliophyta – flowering plants.

Class: Magnoliopsida – dicotyledonous plants.

Subclass: Asteridae – lower classification of flowering plants.

Order: Rubiales – order of dicotyledonous plants.

Family: Rubiaceae – family primarily of tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees.

Genus: Coffea L. – coffee plants.

Species: Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora – for example, Arabica, Robusta, or Liberica.

Arabica Coffee Beans

Most people associate Arabica coffee beans with high-quality specialty coffee. Arabica coffee accounts for approximately 60-70% of the world's total coffee production. Arabica coffee is considered the earliest cultivated coffee variety. These beans grow in high-altitude areas, requiring regions with stable rainfall and cool temperatures. They are extremely sensitive to their growing environment and are mostly found between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Arabica's altitude requirements range from 800-2000 meters, with higher altitudes producing better coffee quality.

Its origins can be traced back to around 1000 BC in the highlands of the Kingdom of Kefa, which is modern-day Ethiopia. In Kefa, the Oromo people would crush them and mix them with fat to create spheres the size of ping-pong balls. The Oromo people used these spheres as stimulants, much like people do today. Arabica coffee got its name around the 7th century when these coffee beans crossed the Red Sea from Ethiopia to what is now Yemen and the Arabian region, thus earning the name "Arabian coffee." The first written record of making coffee from roasted coffee beans comes from Arab scholars, who wrote that coffee helped extend their working hours. The Arabians' innovative practice of brewing with roasted coffee beans in Yemen first spread among Egyptians and Turks, and later found its way around the world.

Arabica coffee has the most varieties (at least 40), and FrontStreet Coffee has listed a small selection for you:

Typica

The Typica group, like all Arabica coffees, originates from southwestern Ethiopia. It is one of the most culturally and genetically important coffees in the world. Typica coffee beans are oval-shaped, slender and full-bodied, featuring a clean taste and elegant, pure flavor characteristics. They are highly susceptible to leaf rust but can adapt well to cold weather.

Bourbon

Bourbon is a natural variant of Typica. French missionaries introduced Bourbon from Yemen to Bourbon Island (now Réunion Island) in the early 1700s, naming it after Bourbon. However, starting from the mid-1800s, as missionaries began establishing footholds in Africa and the Americas, this variety spread to new places around the world. Bourbon coffee beans are short and round, with thick bodies, featuring a smooth taste and distinctly sweet flavor characteristics.

Geisha

This variety was originally discovered in the 1930s in the Geisha coffee forests of Ethiopia. The spellings Geisha and Gesha are often used interchangeably, which relates to the fact that there is no fixed translation from Ethiopian dialects to English. In 2005, coffee gained fame when the Peterson family from Boquete, Panama, entered it in the "Best of Panama" competition and auction. It received extremely high ratings, breaking the record for green coffee auction prices at the time, selling for over $20 per pound. Geisha coffee beans are slender and pointed at both ends, becoming full and plump in the middle.

Caturra

Caturra is a compact plant with good yield potential and standard quality, highly sensitive to coffee leaf rust. Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety. It was discovered between 1915 and 1918 in a plantation in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Caturra coffee beans are round and elongated, with a curved tail end, featuring a bright, clean taste and distinctly sweet flavor characteristics.

Catuai

Similar to Caturra, Catuai is a high-yield potential compact plant in Central America with standard quality, highly sensitive to coffee leaf rust. A hybrid between high-yielding Mundo Novo and compact Caturra, created by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Catuai coffee beans are elliptical and flat, with a more slender tail end, featuring mild acidity, clean taste, and rich fruit aromas.

SL28 & SL34

During 1935-1939, coffee varieties selectively bred by Scott Laboratories were all prefixed with SL. SL28 is one of Africa's most famous and esteemed varieties. Therefore, it spread from Kenya, where it was originally selected in the 1930s, to other parts of Africa (especially important in Uganda's Arabica growing areas), and has now spread to Latin America.

SL28 comes from the Bourbon genetic group, with short and round beans, thick-bodied, featuring rising acidity and distinctly sweet flavor characteristics. SL34 comes from the Typica genetic group, with oval-shaped beans that appear flatter from the side than the Typica variety, featuring balanced sweet and sour fullness and caramel aftertaste flavor characteristics.

Robusta Coffee Beans

Robusta coffee beans account for about 30% of world coffee production. This is a cheaper variety, making it a very economical choice for roasters. Thanks to the rich caffeine content of Robusta coffee beans, they are generally used as raw material for instant coffee.

Robusta grows at much lower altitudes than Arabica, typically around 0-800 meters above sea level. Due to insufficient evidence, it's difficult to say exactly when the Robusta plant was discovered. Many people find Robusta coffee more pungent and bitter. However, some Robusta coffee beans may also have some positive flavors such as: walnut, peanut, hazelnut, wheat, and grain notes. Some even say they have slight chocolate notes.

Liberica Coffee Beans

Unknown in Western civilization until the late 1800s, Liberica established itself among coffee producers in Southeast Asia after fungal disease ("coffee rust") destroyed most of the region's Arabica coffee crops. However, it is not common in North American and European markets. Currently, this coffee accounts for only about 7% of the world's coffee.

They are larger than other beans and are the only irregularly shaped beans in the world. Liberica beans also have unique aromas, with some saying they are not only smoky but also fruity and floral. Liberica's wild flavor presentation is controversial and polarizing. Liberica is also often used as raw material for instant coffee. In the Philippines, "Kape Barako" has become a must-have breakfast coffee for the older generation. In Malaysia, Liberica coffee beans are made into local specialty products – white coffee.

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